Tulevaisuuden oppimisen

For those who have always wanted to reflect upon education of the future with Finnish and British colleagues, an opportunity presented itself just before the summer holiday. The HU Summer learning lab, a pilot initiative that was started from the educational innovation program in collaboration with the Centre of Expertise in Education HBO and two of our Carpe partners. The purpose: networking, international exchange concerning educational innovation and exploring possible pathways to achieve the basic qualification of designing and/or executing education.

This Summer Learning Lab started in Utrecht, Turku and Manchester on June 27, 2016. It was a blended pilot with partners from the United Kingdom and Finland, where different learning environments were used: online, face-to-face (F2F) and the online HU learning environment HUbl. The framework of the program was more or less set in stone and was prepared together with the partners. The content and implementation of the two days was (mostly) based on the learning needs of the participants combined with a local flavour. Participants and facilitators were distributed across three locations, which was a learning environment by itself, because the language of instruction was English. Occasionally you could hear some Dutch terms and (for me) incomprehensible Finnish, which then of course had to be translated into English.

So, two F2F days to work with international partners to brood over education of the future, the designing of learning environments, new technology and modern pedagogy and last but not least, the changing role of the teacher. Networking with teachers. I myself was attending as one of the facilitators, as well as host in Utrecht, whereby the group co-design for future learning led by Ilya Zitter and Theo v.d. Boogaart worked hard on design issues. Known design models such as the cobweb of v.d. Akker and hybrid learning environments were discussed. Design thinking and customer journeys were discussed as well. Participants went out to search for potential users and to be inspired by beautiful places in and around the Uithof. We also took the time to examine scenarios of competencies of teachers, and studied various Future Scenarios for Higher Education. What future work skills need a teacher?

There was sufficient time to relax during meals and a boat trip on the canals of Utrecht, which was very nice. For those who want to know more people tweeted, periscoped, tumblred and padled. And all of this gets a sequel, more about this later!